New polling from a school called Baldwin Wallace University finds a large majority of Ohioans in favor of a proposed amendment to their state Constitution that will go before voters later this year and would protect abortion rights if approved. The polling was completed October 11.
There are already some election results pointing to the state’s general sentiments, with Ohioans having semi-recently rejected a proposed amendment that would have made it more difficult to approve subsequently proposed amendments — including the abortion measure. (Among other provisions, the rejected item would have raised the level of support needed in the final results to actually make a ballot measure law.)
As for the new polling, it covered a proposed amendment that would establish a legal baseline of protection for abortion rights, still allowing for restrictions on the procedure after what’s known as fetal viability. Over 58 percent said they backed the amendment protecting abortion rights.
Only 33.5 percent said they would vote “no” on the measure, with an additional 8.2 percent undecided. Support was higher, notably, among parents, nearly 65 percent of whom said they’d back the proposal. Rounding, support among those who aren’t parents was some ten percentage points below that level, rebuffing the GOP argument that they’re the ones who are the party of family values, as the concept is known.
The same polling also found a majority in favor of a proposed state amendment that would allow for selling cannabis for recreational — sometimes known as adult-use — purposes. Ohio only needs a simple majority in favor of a proposed amendment to the state Constitution for it to be enacted, a system that’s been in place in the state for a century.
Ohio will also see its Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown on the ballot next year seeking another term, and he recently reported totals in fundraising for the third quarter of this year that put him significantly ahead of key Republican candidates in the state’s Senate primaries. Polling also shows him leading, though the state has repeatedly gone to the Republican pick in recent presidential elections. The last Democrat to win there in November was Barack Obama.
